"A lot of commercial software comes with H.264 encoders and decoders, and some computers arrive with this software preinstalled. This leads a lot of people to believe that they can legally view and create H.264 videos for whatever purpose they like. Unfortunately for them, it ain't so."

But the other side of this is that you'll only be sued if you are making a decent amount of money. They'd also send you a warning letter first and request that you purchase a license.

Ooh, how nice and gracious. Only a lemon with juice will get squeezed.

I don't get it. The license conditions are murky and draconian. We know the licensing company is out to get their pound of flesh one way or the other. Yet we are all tied up in pro and contra blah blah over the use of H.264 on the web, over commercial and non-commercial use.

Shouldn't we just choose for our own safety and simply reject the H.264 codec together with the monster called H.264 licensing?

I can do without 5 pixels per kilobyte more (figuratively speaking) if I know that it will stop a juggernaut from legally mauling unsuspecting violators.

Probably not the viewpoint of a "modern capitalist". These days making something and getting rights to it also means the right to do anything and everything to force it down everybodies throat and fleece everybody for what they're worth. Preferably on a perpetual basis. "NO" is not an option.